The term “urban art” is a bit too much of a catchall phrase used to identify the imagery that has origins in inner-city ‘hood culture and its spillover into suburbia, and has emerged from graffiti, tagging, hip-hop, fashion, comic books and popular advertising. But those art school-educated traditionalists who are too hasty to dismiss the visual language of the streets as faddish, naive or insignificant need to visit the U.G.L.Y. Gallery to see the work of the female artist who goes by the moniker Indie 184.
Born in Puerto Rico of Dominican-American parents, her name is derived from the titular character of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and her West 184th Street neighborhood in Washington Heights, in upper Manhattan.
Her work is vibrant, demanding and subversive. Using the media often associated with graffiti, such as aerosol paint, thick markers and cutouts of photographed imagery, and less common choices (glitter, gold leaf, paste layering), Indie 184 has found a unique aesthetic voice. Displaying nearly two dozen works — mixed media on canvas, archival pigment prints, and drawings — her imagery is bold in the use of bright colors (pinks, teals, citrus yellows) and sophisticated patterning.
Many of the paintings feature the faces of glamorous women, black-and-white headshots of old Hollywood starlets, most that could only be identified by a film scholar. Interestingly, almost none of the work features the bodies of the women, beyond a discreet shoulder or the suggestion of a collarbone. It could be understood that the artist wants the (male) viewer to not fall into the rut of the “male gaze,” the visual caress of the breasts, hips or legs; and instead demands one to engage the face, and by extension, her mind.
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